Many consumers enjoy the convenience of packaged food products such as dough products. In particular, raw dough products have gained commercial success as provided in frozen or refrigerated forms to enable consumers to make home-baked dough products. Such raw dough products are typically packaged in formats to facilitate consumer use, as desired. Potential consumers of such refrigerated or frozen dough products include individual in-home consumers, as well as in-store bakeries and restaurants that bake rolls or cookies on-site and sell the products to customers at the bakery or restaurant.
Many dough products suitable for packaging as frozen or refrigerated products have been developed. For example, biscuits or breadsticks are frequently packaged in refrigerated or frozen forms, using a package that contains multiple portions in a spiral-wound can. In this format, the can must be opened, and the multiple products removed and prepared by the consumer.
One processing format for dough used to form biscuits or breadsticks is sheeting. Such sheeted dough is typically more suitable for high-speed processes of manufacturing. Generally, sheeted dough possesses adequate cohesiveness to hold together during conveying, yet yields clean separations of the individual dough pieces as the various pieces are cut by a conventional apparatus.
One known method for making sheeted dough on a mass production basis utilizes a conveyor. According to this process, appropriately formulated dough is fed from a hopper downwardly through a sheeting system, or series of rolling devices, which reduces the thickness of the dough sheet to less than 10 mm. As the dough leaves the rolling devices, it is then transferred onto the conveyor. Next, the dough is formed into a flat sheet with the potential for making multiple lanes of product. The dough can then be cut into strips using conventional means. The shape of the dough is then further manipulated, and collected into groups of multiple products for subsequent packaging and storage in refrigerated or frozen environments. These high-speed methods for sheeted dough typically produce thousands of products a minute, depending on the rate of manufacture.
When transported on the conveyor, the portions of the dough at the outer edges of the sheet are typically rough, or otherwise uneven. Before subsequent processing, it is desirable to create straight or uniform edges on the sides of the stream of dough. Accordingly, this edge portion must be removed to create a uniform and aesthetically pleasing product before it is packaged. If not trimmed or removed, the outside lane of product would be malformed and unacceptable to the consumer.
A variety of methods have been used to remove trim from the edge of the stream of dough as the dough travels on the conveyor. Manual removal by a production line operator yields a desirable result in terms of accuracy and integrity of the remaining dough product. However, manual removal is generally not feasible in high speed manufacturing processes that are practiced on a plant scale.
Mechanical devices that have been used to remove trim from a dough stream are shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. In FIG. 1, a prior art mechanical device in the form of a stationary plow 2 is positioned downstream from the cutting wheel 4. As the dough stream moves along the conveyor 28, the trim 36 is separated from the main stream of dough when the cutting wheel 4 passes over the dough. As the trim 36 continues to move along the conveyor 28, it contacts the plow 2. The plow 2 forces the trim 36 to move in a direction away from the main stream of dough, and eventually off the conveyor 28.
An alternative prior art mechanical device for removing trim 36 from a dough stream is shown in FIG. 2. In this embodiment, a rotary brush 6 and motor 8 are positioned downstream from the cutting wheel. The rotary brush 6 is defined by a circular disk with bristles on the entire under-surface of the disk. The motor 8 is positioned directly above the brush 6, and is configured to rotate the brush 6 about the axis of the motor's drive-shaft. During production, the motor 8 continuously rotates the brush 6. As the dough stream moves along the conveyor, the trim 36 is separated from the main stream of dough when the cutting wheel passes over the dough. As the trim 36 continues to move along the conveyor, it comes into contact with the rotating brush 6. The rotation of the brush 6 in the desired direction causes the trim 36 to move in a direction away from the main stream of dough, and eventually off the conveyor.
The devices shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 have a wide variety of shortcomings. For example, the stationary plow 2 is only able to move the trim a short distance. If the length of the plow 2 is increased with the intention of moving the trim 36 a longer distance, the frictional force of the trim 36 against the plow 2 is increased, often causing the trim 36 to bunch up, or twist onto the main dough stream.
The rotary brush is also incapable of moving the trim large distances because the diameter of the rotating brush serves as a functional limitation. Furthermore, neither the plow nor the rotary brush devices are very reliable or consistent at “self-starting” the trim from the belt. For example, when a new dough stream, or previously broken dough stream moves down the conveyor, dough will often ball-up on the plow or ride over the top of the rotary brush. Moreover, a further drawback of the rotary brush embodiment is the drive motor that is generally located above the brush and over the product zone. In this configuration, additional care must be taken to avoid the possibility of machine particles or lubricants contacting the dough stream.
In addition to the shortcomings discussed above, the alignments of mechanical removal devices are especially difficult when manufacturing sheet dough on a large scale. For example, the act of contacting a dough stream with a mechanical apparatus can alter the dough stream by inappropriately picking up the dough stream, deforming the dough stream, or moving the dough stream to an undesired location. These problems can be exacerbated at the high speeds of modern production processes described above.